Patrick Cantlay Addresses Brooks Koepka’s Slow-Play Comments From Sunday’s Masters Round

One of the hot topics after Sunday’s final round at the Masters was Brooks Koepka’s comments about the slow play he and final-group partner Jon Rahm encountered while taking their last trip around Augusta National for the year.

Koepka said:

“Yeah, the group in front of us was brutally slow. Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”

That group consisted of Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland. Video evidence shows that Hovland was eager to move along, at one point beginning his walk up the fairway before Cantlay could hit a drive and chipping before Cantlay got to the green.

Viktor definitely sending Cantlay a message at this stage of the round. pic.twitter.com/Y70kfAi73K

— TweeterAlliss (Parody) (by Jove) (@TweeterAlliss) April 9, 2023

Koepka, a member of LIV Golf, isn’t at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for the RBC Heritage, but most of the top PGA Tour players are there for the next designated event on the schedule.

Brooks Koepka wasn’t impressed with the pace of play..

“At one point Viktor Hovland was chipping before Cantlay got to the green which is a clear cut sign that he needed to pick up the pace” ~ @NoLayingUp #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/Xupcsusqm6

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 10, 2023

That includes Cantlay, who lost to Jordan Spieth in a playoff in this event a year ago. He spoke on Tuesday and was asked about the pace on Sunday.

Cantlay said:

“When you play a golf course like Augusta National where all the hole locations are on lots of slope and the greens are really fast, it’s just going to take longer and longer to hole out. I think that’s just the nature of playing professional golf, where every shot matters so much.”

Cantlay said that he felt the day was slow in general, also attributing it to the shifting winds that made shot selections difficult:

“(When) we finished the first hole, and the group in front of us was on the second tee when we walked up to the second tee, and we waited all day on pretty much every shot. We waited in 15 fairway, we waited in 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.”

The 2021 FedEx Cup champion also mentioned that, on average, rounds have taken around the same length of time that they have for the past 10 to 20 years.

Cover Image Via NYPost